Press Release by ASIS

Cyber security expert to discuss how problems with current technologies have left people and companies more vulnerable than ever to cyber spying

Saying the world is getting ever more like the movie The Truman Show, IT and Internet security expert Raj Goel will discuss why spying on people is no longer limited to government agents.

His presentation is part of the (ISC)² 2014 Security Congress Sept. 29-Oct. 2 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. Mr. Goel will speak Wednesday, Sept. 30.

“It’s not a pleasant fact, but reality says it is now easier to look at someone’s very personal information than it is to turn away and not look. To be sure, we are at fault for some of this. The sheer amount of very personal information that should be private but is publicly posted to social media is incredible,” Mr. Goel said. “Twenty years ago, we’d have never imagined putting things online that some people have posted now.”

Making matters more complicated is the state of technology today. Smartphone apps harvest personal information and upload it to servers as a matter of course. That information is then sold around the world. Most of this is innocuous, but enough of it is harmful that people should be taking steps to stop that information spread, he said.

“The news is full of reports of identity theft. Some of this is done through harvesting personal records from personal computers, while other such ID thefts are from compromised networks from companies and governments,” he said.

The recent rise of ‘ransom-ware’ virus attacks points out how vulnerable even personal computers are. Mr. Goel said these are malicious attacks, but it’s still a personal information loss that people can take steps to prevent.

Attacks from overseas are an increasing concern. The days of computer attacks based in the United States have not gone away, but the biggest threats are now from Russia and China.

“What sets these nations apart? Why are they so good at attacks when the rest of the world is not? That’s a serious question that needs a serious answer,” he said. “We’ll take a look what lessons Russia and China can teach us and how these lessons should be applied.”

In the end, real security comes down to each individual taking the needed steps to make sure online personal information is as limited as possible,” he said.“The real question is what have we learned from past successful computer and IT system attacks? How are we applying those lessons today? I plan to discuss this and more at the conference.”